I'm going to link the national issue Congressional financial trading, with the very local issue of Baltimore political officials getting free concert tickets, but you'll have to be patient.
Last Thursday the House finally passed the long overdue STOCK ACT, or the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act.
Editors Note: Of course I wrote this right before last night's Daily Show focused on ripping apart this bill, so I will say this now for those who care, I did not do this to just run with their arguments, though a lot of what they poked fun at I will poke fun at as well.
The act simply spelled out what all crooks on the hill should have known was wrong in the first place. It prohibits federal employees (congressmen - I don't use PC terms like Congress People, just think of how stupid that sounds) from using "any nonpublic information derived from individual's positions as a Member[s] of Congress or employee[s] of Congress, or gained from performance of individual duties, for personal benefit."
In other words, if a congressman knew that some piece of impending legislation, or regulation, or budget allocation would either boost or hurt a company's stock holdings, he couldn't take that knowledge that is nonpublic and privy to him, and use it for his financial gain, by say quickly unloading a stock before a company takes a hit or benefits from said congressional action.
